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The American Copy Editors Society recognized the winners of the 2015 National Headline Contest at the awards banquet during ACES 20th annual conference in Portland, Ore. The organization’s premier headline contest aims to reward exceptional headline writing in all types of mediums from newspaper to social media.

For the first time, the winners were announced with the presentation of a commemorative booklet to members in attendance at the banquet.

The 48-page, full-color booklet features the headlines from every portfolio placing first, second or third in the contest. Distribution of the booklet at the conference was sponsored by The Associated Press Stylebook.

“In the past, we’ve just featured the winning headlines in a slideshow during the awards presentation,” said Nick Jungman, ACES executive committee member and contest chair. “With the booklet, we hope people will take the opportunity to study the winning headlines and understand what makes them great. We also hope the booklet will be a resource for aspiring headlines writers everywhere.”

Individual winners in professional categories won between $75 and $300 and winners in student categories won between $50 and $125. The complete list of winners and a sampling of headlines from first-place portfolios are below.

2015 HEADLINE CONTEST WINNERS

STAFF AWARDS

Newspapers, circulation 200,001 and larger

1st, The Dallas Morning News

2nd, The Washington Post (Portfolio A)

3rd, The Washington Post (Portfolio B)

Honorable mention,The New York Times

Honorable mention,San Francisco Chronicle

Newspapers, circulation 100,001-200,000

1st, New Jersey Advance Media (The Star-Ledger, Portfolio A)

2nd, Omaha World-Herald (Portfolio A)

3rd, Omaha World-Herald (Portfolio B)

Newspapers, circulation 100,000 and smaller

1st, Philadelphia Daily News

2nd, Daily Herald (Arlington Heights, Illinois)

3rd, The Wichita Eagle

Non-newspaper publications

No places were awarded

Online publications

1st, NPR

2nd, NBC Universal (including TODAY.com)

3rd, Law360

Honorable mention, The Wichita Eagle

Student publications

1st, The Daily Tar Heel, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

2nd, Wingspan, Laramie County (Wyoming) Community College

3rd, The Baylor Lariat, Baylor University

INDIVIDUAL AWARDS

Newspapers, circulation 200,001 and larger

1st, David Bowman, Los Angeles Times

2nd, Julie Bone, The Washington Post

3rd, Jim Webster, The Washington Post

Newspapers, circulation 100,001-200,000

1st, Rich Mills, Omaha World-Herald

2nd, Dan Golden, Omaha World-Herald

3rd, Jake Arnold, Oregonian Media Group (The Oregonian)

Honorable mention, Tim Sacco, Omaha World-Herald (Portfolio B)

Newspapers, circulation 100,000 and smaller

1st, Doug Darroch, Philadelphia Daily News

2nd, Joe Berkery, Philadelphia Daily News

3rd, Peter Donohue, The Providence Journal

Non-newspaper publications

1st, James Tehrani, Human Capital Media’s Workforce magazine

2nd, Frannie Sprouls, Human Capital Media

3rd, Missy Sheehan, Sheehan Writing & Editing

Online publications

1st, Colin Dwyer, NPR

No other places were awarded

Student publications

1st, Taylor Griffin, The Baylor Lariat, Baylor University

2nd, Emma LeGault, The University Daily Kansan, University of Kansas

No other places were awarded

A SAMPLING OF SOME OF THE HEADLINES FROM FIRST-PLACE PORTFOLIOS

They feed their lust,

then bite the dust

It’s afterlife instead of afterglow for males of rare marsupial species